Project 6 Stage 4 Sample

Project 6 Stage 4 Sample

This image is one that just shrieks to be worked with.  It is developed from a photo of the roof of the Corn Exchange in Leeds.  I manipulated it with Paint.net with the "dents" effect and it looks frilly and quite unlike the solid, functional roof structure.

The 30cm square I'm allowed is very small considering any pleats etc taken up so much fabric so I'll need to be really selective in what I choose to do.  This is what I've chosen:

It is a very regular, systematic pattern but with fuzzy edges.  I really wanted to exploit some of the gathering I've recently been working on but this doesn't fit the criteria.  As I can't stitch anything on this gives me a bit of a problem.  My plan was to do fine pintucks for the  lower beams (by hand so that I can get a decent curve).  The three large beams could be projecting pleats with the pleats slashed and frayed.  I checked out with my tutor whether the stitching on was something I could pursue and she said if I could justify it properly it was OK.

I slept on the idea and came to the conclusion that my gathering idea was a bit of a cop out; it was just too obvious; too easy.  I decided instead to try a bit of an experiment.  I'd no real idea what the outcome would be so I decided to do a mock up on some sheeting.

I tacked three large pleats in the same positions as the large beams in the image.  The smaller cross beams I represented by stitching some darts that started as a point beside the pleat, widened towards the middle and tapered again to a point.

The result was quite floppy but the structure was interesting and bore some vague resemblance to the roof.  I decided to carry on and make the piece properly.


I chose calico (36cm x 36cm) because it has some body and I thought it would stand up well in the areas I wanted it to.

I measured much more carefully this time and stitched in the pleats.  I made a second row of stitching in anticipation of slashing and fraying.

I placed the darts in as before....

....and the crumpled result was much better than the mock up.

On the reverse the darts gave a particular pointed structure to the piece.

The reverse

The point of a dart on the reverse

This might lend itself to moulding.  I'll think on that overnight.

I've considered the idea of moulding carefully and decided not to do it

a) because I think the fraying is more important to the overall concept and I'm not sure it could happen if the material was stiff

b) there's difficulty in getting a heavily structured piece to my tutor - not insurmountable but a bit impractical.

c) if I was to do it I'd like a much bigger sample.

I slashed the pleats at about .5cm intervals



 then frayed them with a suede brush - gently.

This can be manoeuvred into almost any shape and it stays in shape because it's in calico.  Rather than moulding maybe spray starch would be an idea. The fraying doesn't quite give the effect I'd wanted - the original idea of a ruffle would emulate the fuzziness of the photo better.  However, I wouldn't have learnt so much.

Showing the height of the piece

When this piece is manipulated it takes on the shape of the roof that inspired it - very strange.
I like the contradiction of a very rigid structure becoming something so flexible and yet still retaining some of the original feel.  My initial measuring and sharp pleats had no defence against the pull of the cloth.  Amazing.